DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 09/17/2024 was filed. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 4-8, and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao (US 2020/0328833 A1) in view of TS 38.211 (3GPP TS 38.211 v16.8.0).
Regarding claim 1, Gao discloses: A method, comprising: mapping, by a communication entity, S complex-valued modulation symbols to RxN resource units, because Gao teaches forms a modulation symbol from a concatenated bit group and places the transmitted signals on the time-frequency resources of the OFDM grid, i.e. maps modulation symbols to resource units: (Gao, [0196] “the network node 110 performs the superposed transmission to the first and second wireless device 121, 122 simultaneously on the same transmission resources by transmitting the first signal using a transmission power according to the first ratio and by transmitting the second signal using a transmission power according to the second ratio”)
Furthermore, Gao discloses: wherein the RxN resource units are associated with R demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports for a transmission and N sets of one or more time-frequency domain resources for the transmission, because Gao teaches transmits a PDSCH over one or multiple layers, each layer being associated with a DMRS port, on shared time-frequency resources: (Gao, [0163] “a PDSCH may be transmitted over one or multiple layers, each layer is associated with a DMRS port . . . [0164] For a MUST transmission, two wireless devices share the same time- frequency resource and share the same DMRS ports.”)
Moreover, Gao discloses: wherein R is greater than or equal to 2, N is greater than or equal to 1, and RxN is greater than or equal to 3, because Gao teaches supports dual layer transmissions on paired antenna ports, so that at least two DMRS ports are used: (Gao, [0199] “set the transmission power of the DMRS on each layer to correspond to half the total transmission power, P, available for the superposed transmission”)
In addition, Gao discloses: transmitting, by the communication entity to an apparatus, the S complex-valued modulation symbols over the RxN resource units on the N sets of time-frequency domain resources based on the mapping and using the R DMRS ports, because Gao teaches performs the transmission to the wireless device on the shared transmission resources using the antenna ports carrying the DMRS: (Gao, [0197] “the network node 110 may perform the superposed transmission with equal transmission powers on the antenna ports used by the DMRS.”)
Although Gao teaches a network node mapping modulation symbols and performing transmission over shared time-frequency resources using multiple DMRS ports, each transmission layer associated with a DMRS port: (Gao, [0163]-[0164], [0195]-[0199]), Gao does not explicitly disclose a symbol-to-resource-unit mapping in which S is less than RxN and at least one symbol is repeated across more than one resource unit with the recited counting relationships.
However, Gao in view of TS 38.211 discloses wherein: S is less than RxN, for s from 1 to S, an s-th complex-valued modulation symbol is mapped to r_s resource units, r_s is greater than or equal to 1, for at least one s, r_s is greater than 1, a sum of all of r_s is RxN, and RxN is greater than or equal to 5 if all r_s are equal because TS 38.211 teaches a demodulation reference signal that is uniquely placed on resource elements identified by a frequency index and a symbol index within the resource grid, so that mapping a given symbol onto one or more resource elements (r_s resource units) and repeating symbols across the antenna-port and time-frequency grid is the ordinary mapping-to-physical-resources operation of the resource grid, where the number of resource elements exceeds the number of distinct symbols mapped (TS 38.211, 4.4.3, “Each element in the resource grid for antenna port p and subcarrier spacing configuration u is called a resource element and is uniquely identified”; TS 38.211, 4.4.2, “There is one resource grid for a given antenna port, subcarrier spacing configuration, and transmission direction (downlink, uplink, or sidelink).”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Gao with TS 38.211 because Gao already maps modulation symbols onto shared time-frequency resources associated with multiple DMRS ports, and TS 38.211 supplies the well-defined resource-grid framework in which each resource element is uniquely identified across antenna port, frequency and time, so that repeating a modulation symbol across several resource elements (r_s greater than one, S less than RxN) is a predictable design choice for adding diversity to the shared-resource transmission with a reasonable expectation of success
Regarding claim 4, which depends on claim 1, Gao in view of TS 38.211 discloses The method of claim 1, wherein each DMRS port of the R DMRS ports corresponds to a layer or transmission layer in a spatial domain, as Gao further discloses associates each transmission layer of a PDSCH with a respective DMRS port (Gao, [0163] “a PDSCH may be transmitted over one or multiple layers, each layer is associated with a DMRS port.”).
Regarding claim 5, even though Gao teaches the combination maps modulation symbols to resource units associated with multiple DMRS ports over shared time-frequency resources: (Gao, para. [0163]-[0164], [0195]-[0197]), Gao does not explicitly disclose resource units each corresponding to a unit of a 3D grid of antenna ports, subcarriers and OFDM symbols.
Yet, Gao in view of TS 38.211 discloses The method of claim 1, wherein each resource unit of the RxN resource units corresponds to a corresponding unit in a 3-dimensional (3D) resource grid of a first number of antenna ports in a spatial domain, a second number of subcarriers in the frequency domain, and a third number of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in a time domain because a resource grid of subcarriers and OFDM symbols is defined per antenna port, giving one grid for each antenna port; taken across the set of antenna ports, this defines a three-dimensional grid spanning antenna port (spatial), subcarrier (frequency) and OFDM symbol (time), so each resource element corresponds to a unit of that 3D grid (TS 38.211, 4.4.2, “For each numerology and carrier, a resource grid of . . . subcarriers … and OFDM symbols is defined, starting at common resource block … There is one resource grid for a given antenna port, subcarrier spacing configuration, and transmission direction (downlink, uplink, or sidelink).”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Han remains unused here; the base of Gao and TS 38.211 already establishes the transmission, and TS 38.211 supplies the per-antenna-port resource grid so that treating each resource unit as a cell of a three-dimensional antenna-port/subcarrier/OFDM-symbol grid is a predictable application of the defined grid structure with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 6, in spite of the fact that Gao teaches the combination places resource units in a 3D grid of antenna ports, subcarriers and OFDM symbols with layers associated with DMRS ports: (Gao, para. [0163]-[0164]), Gao does not explicitly disclose the DMRS ports corresponding to a subset of the set of antenna ports.
Yet, Gao in view of TS 38.211 discloses The method of claim 5, wherein the R DMRS ports correspond to a subset of a set of the first number of antenna ports because specific antenna ports are dedicated to demodulation reference signals (antenna ports starting with 1000 for PDSCH DM-RS) within the larger set of antenna ports defined for the downlink, so the DMRS ports are a subset of the full set of antenna ports (TS 38.211, 7.2, “The following antenna ports are defined for the downlink: . . . Antenna ports starting with 1000 for PDSCH . . . For DM-RS associated with a PDSCH, the channel over which a PDSCH symbol on one antenna port is conveyed can be inferred from the channel over which a DM-RS symbol on the same antenna port is conveyed only if the two symbols are within the same resource as the scheduled PDSCH, in the same slot, and in the same PRG as described in clause 5.1.2.3 of [6, TS 38.214].”).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to apply the antenna-port assignments of TS 38.211 in the base combination, because that reference defines a set of downlink antenna ports of which the DMRS ports occupy a designated range, so treating the R DMRS ports as a subset of the antenna-port set is the predictable and standard arrangement with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 7, even though Gao teaches the combination places each resource unit in a 3D grid spanning antenna port, subcarrier and OFDM symbol: (Gao, para. [0163]-[0164]), Gao does not explicitly disclose unique identification of each grid unit by a spatial index r, a frequency index k relative to a reference point, and a time index l relative to a reference point.
Yet, Gao in view of TS 38.211 discloses The method of claim 5, wherein each resource unit of the 3D resource grid is uniquely identified by (r, k, 1), wherein r represents a first index in the spatial domain, k represents a second index in the frequency domain relative to a second reference point, and 1 represents a third index in the time domain relative to a third reference point because each resource element is uniquely identified by an index pair (k,l) where k is the frequency-domain index and l is the symbol position in time relative to a reference point, and this is defined per antenna port; adding the antenna-port (spatial) index r yields the recited (r,k,l) unique identification of each unit of the 3D grid (TS 38.211, 4.4.3, “Each element in the resource g(cid:5)rid(cid:21) for antenna port and subcarrier spacing configuration is called a resource element (,) and is uniquely identified” … 3.1, “k Subcarrier index relative to a reference (cid:2)l OFDM symbol index relative to a re(cid:4)ference”).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to identify each unit of the 3D grid by a spatial, frequency and time index as taught by TS 38.211, because that reference uniquely identifies each resource element by a frequency index and a time index relative to a reference point per antenna port, so appending the antenna-port index for the spatial dimension is a predictable extension yielding the recited (r,k,l) identification with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 8, although Gao teaches the combination defines resource units in a 3D grid of antenna ports, subcarriers and OFDM symbols: (Gao, para. [0163]-[0164]), Gao does not explicitly disclose defining the grid for an OFDM numerology with a subcarrier spacing or cyclic prefix, a carrier, and an uplink, downlink or sidelink transmission direction.
Yet, Gao in view of TS 38.211 discloses The method of claim 5, wherein the 3D resource grid is defined for a first OFDM numerology including at least one of a subcarrier spacing value or a cyclic prefix value, a first carrier, and a first transmission direction of one of a uplink, downlink, or sidelink direction because the resource grid is defined for each numerology and carrier, with one set of resource grids per transmission direction of downlink, uplink or sidelink, and numerology encompasses the subcarrier spacing configuration; this directly recites defining the grid for a numerology, carrier and transmission direction (TS 38.211, 4.4.2, “There is one set of resource grids per grid (cid:20) transmission direction (uplink, downlink, or sidelink) with the subscript set(cid:20) to DL, UL, and SL for downlink, uplink, and sidelink, respectively.” … 4.4.2, “For each numerology and carrier, a resource grid of subcarriers and OFDM symbols is defined,”).
Consequently, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to define the 3D grid per numerology, carrier and transmission direction as taught by TS 38.211, because that reference expressly defines one resource grid per numerology, carrier and transmission direction, making this parameterization the predictable and expected way to define the grid used in the base combination with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 17, although Gao teaches the combination associates the resource units with N sets of time-frequency domain resources for the transmission: (Gao, para. [0163]-[0164]), Gao does not explicitly disclose each time-frequency resource set comprising a resource element in a 2D grid of subcarriers and OFDM symbols.
Yet, Gao in view of TS 38.211 discloses The method of claim 1, wherein each set of time frequency domain resources comprises a resource element in a 2-dimensional (2D) resource grid of a second number of subcarriers in the frequency domain and a third number of OFDM symbols in a time domain because the resource grid for a given antenna port is a two-dimensional grid of subcarriers and OFDM symbols, and each element of that grid is a resource element uniquely identified by a frequency index and a time index, which is exactly the recited 2D time-frequency resource element (TS 38.211, 4.4.2, “For each numerology and carrier, a resource grid of subcarriers and OFDM symbols is defined,” … 4.4.3, “where k is the index in the freque(cid:5)nc(cid:21)y domain and l refers to the symbol position (,) in the time domain”).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to treat each time-frequency resource set as a resource element in a 2D subcarrier/OFDM-symbol grid as taught by TS 38.211, because that reference defines the per-antenna-port grid of subcarriers and OFDM symbols with each element identified by a frequency and time index, making the recited 2D grid the predictable and standard structure with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 18, the claim recites: At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming, the programming including instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, configures the at least one processor to: map S complex-valued modulation symbols to RxN resource units, wherein the RxN resource units are associated with R demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports for a transmission and N sets of one or more time-frequency domain resources for the transmission, wherein R is greater than or equal to 2, N is greater than or equal to 1, and RxN is greater than or equal to 3, wherein: S is less than RxN, for s from 1 to S, an s-th complex-valued modulation symbol is mapped to r_s resource units, r_s is greater than or equal to 1, for at least one s, r_s is greater than 1, a sum of all of r_s is RxN, and RxN is greater than or equal to 5 if all r_s are equal; and cause transmission, to an apparatus, the S complex-valued modulation symbols over the RxN resource units on the N sets of time-frequency domain resources based on the map and using the R DMRS ports. Claim 18 is analogous to claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 19, the claim recites: An apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming, the programming including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to: map S complex-valued modulation symbols to RxN resource units, wherein the RxN resource units are associated with R demodulation reference signal (DMRS) ports for a transmission and N sets of one or more time-frequency domain resources for the transmission, wherein R is greater than or equal to 2, N is greater than or equal to 1, and RxN is greater than or equal to 3, wherein: S is less than RxN, for s from 1 to S, an s-th complex-valued modulation symbol is mapped to r_s resource units, r_s is greater than or equal to 1, for at least one s, r_s is greater than 1, a sum of all of r_s is RxN, and RxN is greater than or equal to 5 if all r_s are equal; and transmit, to another apparatus, the S complex-valued modulation symbols over the RxN resource units on the N sets of time-frequency domain resources based on the map and using the R DMRS ports. Claim 19 is analogous to claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 20, the claim recites: The apparatus of claim 19, wherein each resource unit of the RxN resource units corresponds to a corresponding unit in a 3-dimensional (3D) resource grid of a first number of antenna ports in a spatial domain, a second number of subcarriers in the frequency domain, and a third number of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in a time domain. Claim 20 is analogous to claim 5 and is rejected for the same reasons.
Claims 2, 3, 9-13, 15, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao (US 2020/0328833 A1) in view of TS 38.211 (3GPP TS 38.211 v16.8.0) and further in view of Han (US 2018/0191477 A1).
Regarding claim 2, in spite of the fact that Gao in view of TS 38.211 teaches the combination maps modulation symbols to resource units associated with multiple DMRS ports and transmits them over shared time-frequency resources: (Gao, para. [0163]-[0164], [0195]-[0199]; TS 38.211, para. [4.4.2], [4.4.3]), Gao in view of TS 38.211 does not explicitly disclose adaptively obtaining R and N based on channel condition information and ultra reliable low latency communications requirements.
Yet, Gao in view of TS 38.211 and further in view of Han discloses The method of claim 1, wherein R and N are adaptively obtained based on channel condition information and ultra reliable low latency communications (URLLC) requirements because the resource dimensioning for control information transmission can be tied to system requirements and channel state, with the spreading factor changeable according to system requirements and signaled to the UE, teaching adaptive selection of the number of resources based on prevailing conditions; a person of ordinary skill would extend this adaptive dimensioning to the number of DMRS ports and time-frequency resource sets to meet low-latency reliability needs (Han, [0206], “The SF can be changed to 1, 2, 3, 4,... to the UE through DCI or RRC signaling.”).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to further combine Han with the base combination because Han teaches that resource parameters governing a transmission can be adapted to system requirements and signaled to the receiver, so applying this adaptive selection to the number of DMRS ports and time-frequency resource sets in the shared-resource transmission of Gao predictably lets the transmitter meet reliability and latency targets with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 3, although Gao in view of Han teaches the combination adaptively obtains R and N from channel condition information for the shared-resource transmission: (Gao, para. [0163]-[0164], [0195]-[0199]; Han, para. [0206]), Gao in view of Han does not explicitly disclose obtaining the channel condition information from a sounding reference signal or a channel state information report from the apparatus.
Yet, Gao in view of Han and further in view of TS 38.211 discloses The method of claim 2, wherein the channel condition information is obtained based on at least one of a sounding reference signal (SRS) or a channel state information (CSI) report received from the apparatus because the sounding reference signal is a defined uplink physical signal transmitted by the UE and received by the network, which is the conventional means by which the network obtains uplink channel condition information; using such an SRS to derive the channel condition on which R and N are adapted is the ordinary use of that signal (TS 38.211, 6.1.2, “The following uplink physical signals are defined: - Demodulation reference signals, DM-RS . . . Phase-tracking reference signals, PT-RS . . . Sounding reference signal, SRS”).
Consequently, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to rely on Han for the adaptive dimensioning of claim 2 and on TS 38.211 for the sounding reference signal, because TS 38.211 defines the SRS as the standard uplink signal for characterizing the channel, and deriving the channel condition information from an SRS received from the UE is the predictable and expected source for the adaptive selection with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 9, even though Gao in view of TS 38.211 teaches the combination maps modulation symbols to resource units associated with DMRS ports over shared time-frequency resources: (Gao, para. [0163]-[0164], [0195]-[0197]; TS 38.211, para. [4.4.3]), Gao in view of TS 38.211 does not explicitly disclose a first region configured for spatial multiplexing where a symbol is mapped to only one resource unit.
Yet, Gao in view of TS 38.211 and further in view of Han discloses The method of claim 1, wherein the RxN resource units comprises a first region configured as a spatial multiplexing region and a first complex-valued modulation symbol on the first region is mapped to only 1 resource unit because when control information is mapped to a single antenna port, the complex signal is mapped to subcarriers after DFT precoding without repetition, i.e. one symbol occupies a single resource, which is the spatial-multiplexing-type region where a symbol is mapped to only one resource unit as distinguished from the transmit-diversity mapping (Han, [0256], “Referring to FIGS. 43B and 43C, when the control information is mapped to antenna (port) 0, the complex signal is mapped to subcarriers after being subjected to DFT precoding..”).
For these reasons, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to add Han to the base combination because Han distinguishes a straightforward one-to-one mapping of a symbol to a subcarrier from a diversity mapping, so configuring a first region for spatial multiplexing in which each symbol occupies a single resource unit is a predictable design choice for the shared-resource transmission of Gao with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 10, although Gao in view of TS 38.211 teaches the combination provides a spatial multiplexing region where a symbol maps to only one resource unit: (Gao, para. [0163]-[0164]; TS 38.211, para. [4.4.3]), Gao in view of TS 38.211 does not explicitly disclose mapping a first set of symbols onto resource units of the first region with a corresponding r_s of 1 for each.
Yet, Gao in view of TS 38.211 and further in view of Han discloses The method of claim 9, further comprising: mapping a first set of one or more of the S complex valued modulation symbols onto a subset of one or more resource units in the first region, wherein a corresponding r_s is 1 for each of the first set of the one or more of the S complex-valued modulation symbols because mapping the complex signal to subcarriers after DFT precoding on the single antenna port places each modulation symbol on one resource, meaning the repetition count r_s equals 1 for each symbol of that first set mapped into the spatial multiplexing region (Han, [0256], “Referring to FIGS. 43B and 43C, when the control information is mapped to antenna (port) 0, the complex signal is mapped to subcarriers after being subjected to DFT precoding.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to apply the one-to-one subcarrier mapping of Han in the first region of the base combination, because mapping each symbol to a single resource (r_s equal to one) is the natural implementation of a spatial multiplexing region and predictably preserves the per-symbol mapping in that region with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 11, in spite of the fact that Gao in view of TS 38.211 teaches the combination provides a spatial multiplexing region and maps symbols to resource units over shared time-frequency resources: (Gao, para. [0163]-[0164]; TS 38.211, para. [4.4.3]), Gao in view of TS 38.211 does not explicitly disclose a second region configured as a diversity region where a symbol is mapped to more than one resource unit.
Yet, Gao in view of TS 38.211 and further in view of Han discloses The method of claim 9, wherein the RxN resource units includes a second region configured as a diversity region and a second complex-valued modulation symbol on the second region is mapped to more than 1 resource unit because the Alamouti transmit-diversity scheme is applied across two antenna ports, mapping the same DFT symbols (in modified form) to the resources of a second antenna port as well, so a modulation symbol appears on more than one resource unit forming a diversity region (Han, [0254], “For example, d_0, d_l, d_2, d_3 are mapped to the SC-FDMA symbols corresponding to antenna (port) 0 whereas -d_l *, d_0*, -d_3*, d_2* are mapped to the SC-FD MA symbols corresponding to antenna (port) 1.”).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to add a diversity region using the Alamouti scheme of Han to the base combination, because that reference maps the same symbols across two antenna ports for transmit diversity, so configuring a second region in which a symbol occupies more than one resource unit predictably improves reliability of the shared-resource transmission with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 12, although Gao in view of TS 38.211 teaches the combination provides a diversity region where a symbol maps to more than one resource unit: (Gao, para. [0163]-[0164]; TS 38.211, para. [4.4.3]), Gao in view of TS 38.211 does not explicitly disclose mapping a second set of symbols onto resource units of the second region with a corresponding r_s greater than 1 for each.
Yet, Gao in view of TS 38.211 and further in view of Han discloses The method of claim 11, further comprising: mapping a second set of one or more of the S complex valued modulation symbols onto a subset of one or more resource units in the second region, wherein a corresponding r_s is greater than 1 for each of the second set of the one or more of the S complex-valued modulation symbols because the Alamouti mapping places each of the DFT symbols on both antenna port 0 and antenna port 1, so each symbol of the second set occupies more than one resource unit, i.e. r_s greater than 1 for each such symbol in the diversity region (Han, [0254], “d_0, d_l, d_2, d_3 are mapped to the SC-FDMA symbols corresponding to antenna (port) 0 whereas -d_l *, d_0*, -d_3*, d_2* are mapped to the SC-FD MA symbols corresponding to antenna (port) 1.”).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to map the second set of symbols with a repetition count greater than one in the diversity region as taught by Han, because the Alamouti scheme inherently places each symbol across the resources of two antenna ports, predictably yielding r_s greater than one per symbol for diversity with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 13, in spite of the fact that Gao in view of TS 38.211 teaches the combination provides a diversity region where symbols map to more than one resource unit using a transmit-diversity code: (Gao, para. [0163]-[0164]; TS 38.211, para. [4.4.3]), Gao in view of TS 38.211 does not explicitly disclose the second region including an Alamouti Code sub-region among the recited alternatives, each sub-region including more than one resource unit.
Yet, Gao in view of TS 38.211 and further in view of Han discloses The method of claim 11, wherein the second region includes at least one sub-region, and each of the at least one sub-region comprises: an Alamouti Code sub-region, a Stacked Alamouti Code sub-region, a Concatenated Alamouti Code sub-region, a General Stacked Alamouti Code sub-region, a Quasi-Orthogonal Space-Time Block Codes (QOSTBC) sub-region, or an Overlapped Alamouti Code sub-region, and each sub-region of the at least one sub-region includes more than 1 resource unit because the Alamouti scheme is expressly applied as a transport-diversity scheme, defining an Alamouti Code sub-region as one of the claimed alternatives, and because the Alamouti code spreads symbols across two antenna ports each sub-region necessarily includes more than one resource unit (Han, [0252], “As another transport diversity scheme, the Alamouti scheme can be applied to an output value of the DFT precoder in the frequency domain.”).
Consequently, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to implement the diversity region of the base combination as an Alamouti Code sub-region as taught by Han, because that reference expressly applies the Alamouti scheme as a transport-diversity scheme spanning multiple resources, so selecting an Alamouti sub-region spanning more than one resource unit is a predictable design choice with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 15, in spite of the fact that Gao in view of TS 38.211 teaches the combination maps modulation symbols into regions and sub-regions of the resource units and transmits them over shared time-frequency resources: (Gao, para. [0192], [0195]-[0197]; TS 38.211, para. [4.4.2]), Gao in view of TS 38.211 does not explicitly disclose transmitting control information with an indication of the time-frequency resource sets and the regions and sub-regions in an RRC or MAC message.
Yet, Gao in view of TS 38.211 and further in view of Han discloses The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the communication entity, control information for the transmission, wherein transmitting the control information comprises: transmitting, by the communication entity to the apparatus, the control information comprising an indication related to the N sets of one or more time-frequency domain resources, and regions and sub-regions of the RxN resource units in one of a RRC message or a MAC message because resource configuration information such as spreading factor and resource indices for control information can be signaled to the UE through RRC signaling, so signaling the indication of the time-frequency resource sets and the regions and sub-regions used for the mapping via an RRC message is the ordinary semi-static configuration mechanism (Han, [0212], “The SF can be changed to 1, 2, 3, 4,... according to system requirements, and pre-defined between a BS and a UE or signaled to the UE through DCI or RRC signaling.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to transmit the region and resource indications in an RRC or MAC message as taught byHan, because that reference signals the resource configuration for the mapping to the UE through RRC signaling, so conveying the time-frequency resource sets and the region/sub-region layout via such higher-layer messages is a predictable configuration approach with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 16, even though Gao in view of TS 38.211 teaches the combination maps modulation symbols to resource units and transmits them, with the receiver needing the mapping information: (Gao, para. [0192], [0195]-[0197]; TS 38.211, para. [4.4.2]), Gao in view of TS 38.211 does not explicitly disclose transmitting control information including information for receiving the symbols and the mapping in a DCI or MAC message.
Yet, Gao in view of TS 38.211 and further in view of Han discloses The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the communication entity, control information for the transmission, wherein transmitting the control information comprises: transmitting, by the communication entity to the apparatus, the control information including information for receiving the S complex-valued modulation symbols and the mapping in a DCI message or a MAC message because the spreading/resource configuration governing how the symbols are mapped can be signaled to the UE through DCI, so transmitting the information the receiver needs to recover the symbols and their mapping in a DCI message is the ordinary dynamic-signaling mechanism (Han, [0212], “The SF can be changed to 1, 2, 3, 4,... according to system requirements, and pre-defined between a BS and a UE or signaled to the UE through DCI or RRC signaling.”).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to transmit the mapping information in a DCI or MAC message as taught by Han, because that reference signals the resource/spreading configuration dynamically through DCI, so conveying the information needed by the receiver to recover the symbols and the mapping via DCI is a predictable dynamic-signaling approach with a reasonable expectation of success.
Conclusion
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/CHONGSUH PARK/Examiner, Art Unit 2478
/JOSEPH E AVELLINO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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